Opening/ Thu. Sep. 4, 18 - 21 hr
Opening night reading at 19 hr with Anke Dyes, Inka Meißner, and Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson.
Tues. + Wed. 11 - 15 hr / Thurs. + Fri. 11 - 18 hr / Sat. 11 - 15 hreinBuch.haus / Florastr. 61, 13187 Berlin
Quotes about Books from Books about Books is an artists’ book, an exhibition, and a library of books about books, including periodicals, journals, exhibition catalogues, zines, monographs, and artists’ books spanning 1974–2025. Edited and compiled by Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson, the project presents 148 quotes, drawn from his archive of printed matter, that reflect on the book as medium, material, and metaphor. The accompanying exhibition makes each source publication physically accessible to visitors—creating a participatory experience that mirrors the democratic ethos of independent publishing.
Historically, publishing has allowed artists to reclaim control over their work and operate outside commercial or institutional frameworks—a tradition this project draws on. By compiling and sequencing excerpts from a broad spectrum of artistic and theoretical publications, it interrogates the formal and conceptual boundaries of print culture and bookmaking.
The selected quotes address themes such as the economic realities of production, freedom of the press, authorship, and the artist’s book as a political object. The project also considers the book as an exhibition space, an object that resists categorization, and a self-reflexive medium. Some quotes further reflect on the materiality of books in more abstract or experimental terms. At its core, the project engages with long-standing debates around what a book is—or might be—questions that continue to shape contemporary publishing practices.
Subtitled Revised, Reversed, Revisited Edition, the publication resists conventional ordering, unfolding according to its own internal logic. Through excerpting, recontextualizing, and cataloguing, it explores how books articulate their own conditions of production, distribution, and reception.
Printed in a limited edition of 555 copies, Quotes about Books from Books about Books—Revised, Reversed, Revisited Edition will be released on 4 September 2025 in conjunction with the exhibition at einBuch.haus in Berlin.
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson is an artist and self-publisher. Through his imprint Multinational Enterprises (est. 2012), he produces printed matter that examines publishing as artistic practice. His work explores the book as object, archive, and conceptual medium, using systems of categorization and citation to play with the ideological frameworks embedded in print—often with a deadpan sense of humour.